The present invention has come into being as a result of a need for fabricated wooden trusses to be used as a substitute for traditional floor joists cut from dimensioned lumber such as 2 .times. 10 or 2 .times. 12 lumber which is increasingly difficult to obtain. To be a satisfactory substitute for the traditional one-piece joist, the wooden floor trusses must be produced economically on a mass scale with dimensional accuracy and uniformity. Most particularly, the truss web braces or components must have their angled end faces cut with a high degree of accuracy and repeatability so that when the truss members are joined by metal plates, all joints will be tight fitting and gap-free to assure adequate strength in the truss. The present invention is embodied in a machine for completely satisfying the above need on an economical and entirely practical mass production basis. Therefore the machine of the invention is a specialized machine tailored to the solution of one particular problem, as above noted.
Various lumber cutting and mitering machines of some relevance are known in the prior art and examples of the patented prior art are disclosed in the following United States patents:
2,171,541 PA1 2,918,950 PA1 3,251,388 PA1 3,289,662 PA1 3,298,097 PA1 3,620,270 PA1 3,854,360 PA1 3,888,152.
None of the known prior art machines is capable of producing truss web components with the high degree of uniformity and dimensional accuracy demanded by the particular end product use and on a mass production scale sufficient to render the machine fully practical. The present invention fully provides such capability in a simplified, rugged and comparatively inexpensive arrangement. The machine is efficient and very reliable in its operation and easy to adjust and maintain. Other features and advantages of the invention will become apparent during the course of the following description.